One of the most exciting aspects of Syfy’s upcoming series “The Expanse” is the fact that the show strives to create an entirely new universe in its first few episodes; one laden with new technology, but one that uses it in an authentic way.

As we all await the premiere of the new Star Wars movie, I'd like to indulge in a wee bit of heresy. Maybe — just maybe — something far, far better than The Force Awakens is making its appearance Tuesday night.

Risks exist, in that an adaptation must conquer not only the standard mountains of filmmaking (i.e. not sucking), but it must also bear the often burdensome weight of canon. This omnipresent threat from those same thousands of fans, waiting for reassurance that this new property will not betray the thing they love so much, cannot be ignored.

We suspect some of the praise SyFy is enjoying for their new space drama series “The Expanse” (based on the novels by James S. A. Corey, aka writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), is a direct result of how well the show’s tone is set by this sweeping and ominous title sequence by Australian studio Breeder.

The question of gravity is, of course, a tricky one for Earth-bound productions set in space. Weightlessness is one of the defining characteristics of space travel, and people are endlessly fascinated by astronauts floating in the International Space Station and so on.

This snippet of dialogue sets up one of the most inventive scenes ever seen on screen in science fiction. Past movies and shows from "Star Trek" to "2001: A Space Odyssey" sidestepped the fundamental problems of space travel with imaginary physics or by skipping them entirely. "The Expanse," which aspires to be a sort of interplanetary "Game of Thrones," relishes them.

As a TV show, it needs to establish the world and its characters much faster than the space of a novel permits. The accents and patois of the Belters does much to set them apart from those born in the gravity wells of Earth or Mars. A transit map quickly orients us to the geography of Ceres Station.